The MEMORY_BASIC_INFORMATION structure contains information about a range of pages in the virtual address space of a process. The VirtualQuery and VirtualQueryEx functions use this structure.
typedef struct _MEMORY_BASIC_INFORMATION { // mbi
PVOID BaseAddress; // base address of region
PVOID AllocationBase; // allocation base address
DWORD AllocationProtect; // initial access protection
DWORD RegionSize; // size, in bytes, of region
DWORD State; // committed, reserved, free
DWORD Protect; // current access protection
DWORD Type; // type of pages
} MEMORY_BASIC_INFORMATION;
typedef MEMORY_BASIC_INFORMATION *PMEMORY_BASIC_INFORMATION;
Members
BaseAddress
Points to the base address of the region of pages.
AllocationBase
Points to the base address of a range of pages allocated by the VirtualAlloc function. The page pointed to by the BaseAddress member is contained within this allocation range.
AllocationProtect
Specifies the access protection given when the region was initially allocated. One of the following flags can be present, along with the PAGE_GUARD and PAGE_NOCACHE protection modifier flags:
Flag | Meaning |
PAGE_READONLY | Enables read access to the committed region of pages. An attempt to write to the committed region results in an access violation. If the system differentiates between read-only access and execute access, an attempt to execute code in the committed region results in an access violation. |
PAGE_READWRITE | Enables both read and write access to the committed region of pages. |
PAGE_WRITECOPY | Gives copy-on-write access to the committed region of pages. |
PAGE_EXECUTE | Enables execute access to the committed region of pages. An attempt to read or write to the committed region results in an access violation. |
PAGE_EXECUTE_READ | Enables execute and read access to the committed region of pages. An attempt to write to the committed region results in an access violation. |
PAGE_EXECUTE_READWRITE | Enables execute, read, and write access to the committed region of pages. |
PAGE_EXECUTE_WRITECOPY | Enables execute, read, and write access to the committed region of pages. The pages are shared read-on-write and copy-on-write. |
PAGE_GUARD | Protects the page with the underlying page protection. However, access to the region causes a "guard page entered" condition to be raised in the subject process. This flag is a page protection modifier, only valid when used with one of the page protections other than PAGE_NOACCESS. |
PAGE_NOACCESS | Disables all access to the committed region of pages. An attempt to read from, write to, or execute in the committed region results in an access violation exception, called a general protection (GP) fault. |
PAGE_NOCACHE | Allows no caching of the committed regions of pages. The hardware attributes for the physical memory should be set to no cache. This is not recommended for general usage. It is useful for device drivers; for example, mapping a video frame buffer with no caching. This flag is a page protection modifier, only valid when used with one of the page protections other than PAGE_NOACCESS. |
RegionSize
Specifies the size, in bytes, of the region beginning at the base address in which all pages have identical attributes.
State
Specifies the state of the pages in the region. One of the following states is indicated:
State | Meaning |
MEM_COMMIT | Indicates committed pages for which physical storage has been allocated, either in memory or in the paging file on disk. |
MEM_FREE | Indicates free pages not accessible to the calling process and available to be allocated. For free pages, the information in the AllocationBase, AllocationProtect, Protect, and Type members is undefined. |
MEM_RESERVE | Indicates reserved pages where a range of the process's virtual address space is reserved without allocating any physical storage. For reserved pages, the information in the Protect member is undefined. |
Protect
Specifies the access protection of the pages in the region. One of the flags listed for the AllocationProtect member is specified.
Type
Specifies the type of pages in the region. The following types are defined:
Type | Meaning |
MEM_IMAGE | Indicates that the memory pages within the region are mapped into the view of an image section. |
MEM_MAPPED | Indicates that the memory pages within the region are mapped into the view of a section. |
MEM_PRIVATE | Indicates that the memory pages within the region are private (not shared by other processes). |
See Also